Turning corners of coffer-dams or piers



(No Model.)

J. A. WAKEFIELD 85 T. M. NELSON. TURNING CORNERS 0F GOFFER DAMS 0R PIERS.

Patented June 2, 1891.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES A. IVAKEFIELD AND THOMAS M. NELSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

TURNING CORNERS OF COFFER-DAMS OR PIERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 453,331, dated June 2, 1891.

Application filed October 20, 1890. Serial No. 368,692. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, JAMES A. WAKEFIELD and THOMAS M. NELSON, citizens of the United States, and residents of Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have jointly invented new and useful Improvements in Turning Corners of Coffer-Dams or Piers, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the annexed drawings, illustrating the invention, in which Figure 1 is a top or plan view of two sections of the triple sheet-piling patented to James A. Wakefield on September .20, 1887, No. 370,108, with the corners turned on our new and improved plan; Fig. 2, a plan view of three sections of the said sheet-piling united at different angles. Fig. 3 is an elevation of a portion of Fig. 2,showing eight piles driven andour improved corner-pile driven only partly down.

Heretofore there has been no means provided for turning a square, obtuse, or acute angle with the kind of piling mentioned, and it being essential that this be done we proceed in the following described manner and I by the following means to turn the corners.

E E G represent the three pieces of plank which form a pile, as in said patent. The planks E, covering only a portion of plank G, form a tongue and groove. The method the purpose of the plank G in forming a tongue to make a continuous connection between the sections H I. The two obtuse anglesformed by the pier-sections A B K are produced by beveling the ends of section B and uniting therewith by bolts 0 tongues D, which enter grooves in sections A K, and thus is formed an angular pier with all the con-- nections substantially the same as a straight pier, and the pressure is distributed immediately at the angles, as at any other part of the pier. At Fig. 3 section A is represented as driven with one pile, of which the attached tongue formsa partonly partly driven. Therefore the attached tongue runs in the groove formed between the planks E, and consequently it has the same support as a tongue formed by the plank G.

Having thus described our invention, we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patentof the United States- In a pier constructed of piles formed each of three thicknesses of planks to provide a tongue and groove at the edges of each pile, the corner formed by a continuous tongue-andgroove connection consistingof atonguebolted to a plane face upon one of the abutting sections and entering a groove in the adjoining oblique or rectangular section, as and for the purpose set forth.

JAMES A. \VAKEFIELD. THOMAS M. NELSON.

Witnesses:

G. L. CHAPIN, ELLIs S. OHEsBRoUGH. 

